Other Views: September 2008 Archives

Here's a cool blog written by a 6th grade girl called "25 Days to Make A Difference". For the first 25 days of each month, she works on a charitable project; she tells you the project at the beginning of the month, reports on her progress, and then tells you how it went! One month it was collecting books for her library's book sale and collection. Another month it was turning in glass bottles and aluminum cans and using the collected deposits to help animal charities. It's really interesting and she has a fun time choosing projects! Each month she also makes a donation to the favorite charity of one of her commenters.

Here's an excerpt from a blog written by a lady who travels the world doing volunteer work. She writes about one of our members!

"I love the fact that the Girls Scouts exist. I love the fact that there are girls being mentored out there, and because they are growing up confident, they are changing the world. I also really love that the Girl Scouts cross political and religious lines, and are a mix of girls from different backgrounds and beliefs. In a world where people can't seem to get along ..it's a good thing to see people-even kids-trying to find commonality instead of focusing exclusively on differences. This is a big theme of my blog-figuring out where to meet all the people I come across on my travels halfway, rather than insisting that they agree with me. (It's not easy!)

"I also heard about Maddie, a Girl Scout in Alabama who has taken the idea of leaving less of an imprint on the planet full steam ahead..by participating in a program in the States called, "Grow A Row". The idea is to grow a garden, and give over a certain amount to your local foodbank or similiar charity. Grow A Row is an idea whose time has come..when many people in the USA are going to bed hungry at night, don't have enough to feed their kids, and are turning to churches, misc non profits, and the foodstamp program to supplement their meager diets.

"I find Maddie's idea inspiring me to take my life -and any future gardening plans-to another level. Here she is, "just a kid", and she's already spending alot of her time thinking about people other than her. Alot of people don't even get around to even beginning to think like that until retirement.

"Kids are like that. They push us farther than we thought we could go. They open us up to new possibilities, and sometimes remind us of principles we promised we'd live by at some point but forgot. They help to keep us from falling into the cynical trap and move mountains to show us that, yes, change is possible."